Sidestories for Born from Shadows
by ninjakilla
Summary: Snippets, side stories, crossovers, and random scenes from Born from Shadows that either didnt fit in the story or I couldn't get out of my head.
1. Meeting Team 10

Here I will be posting short snippets and stories. All will be part of BFS universe unless otherwise stated in the beginning of the chapter. NOTHING here needs to be read to understand BFS. However, some of this will not make sense if you haven't read BFS first.

This is not in chronological order. They are just random excerpts of the story that I wrote out and wanted to place in the story but had no place. None of them will be in first person like teh normal BFS chapters which wil make a unique experience. Most will be other POV's so you can see other things happening within the universe.

Some scenes like the next one I plan on posting are things that happen in between that I want you guys to see, but couldn't fit into the story. This is not that kind of chapter. This is just because I have a head cannon that Kakashi would _hate_ to have Shikamaru as a student and that Asuma feels the exact same way about Kageko.

~Linebreak~

Asuma met Nara Kageko only two week after team placements. He was treating his team to a dinner after a difficult day's training and they were walking towards an barbecue place recommended by Choji, one that Shikamaru and Ino had both insisted on, citing something about Choji's diet needing to be met.

They were making their way down the main village road while Ino complained about something to the two boys when a fourth person casually walked over and joined in the group.

She was short, shorter then Ino, and had the same spiky hair as her brother. She also had a perpetual slouch that looked just like Shikamaru's own lazy Nara walk. She shared the darker skin of the Nara's and even wore the same color clothing as her brother, a clan insignia emblazoned on the sleeve. It was female version of Shikamaru, just shorter. His genin and her nodded in greeting, but she tossed a casual "hey" to both Ino and Choji.

Choji let out a cheerful "Hello!" back.

Ino was frowning at her, a line marring her smooth forehead.

"Kage-chan, whats the big idea getting placed on a team with Sasuke-kun?" Ino burst out.

The darker haired girl stopped walking and turned to face the blonde, blinking sardonically.

"Why, hello Ino, how are you? I'm fine. I am enjoying my team placement, thank you for asking. No nothing crazy, family is fine. Thanks for asking. Now that we got all the formalities out of the way, was there anything you wanted to ask me?"

Shikamaru and Choji both snickered. Ino looked embarrassed but she brushed it off, rolling her eyes. "You know I care about all that. This is more important though." She insisted.

Kageko rolled her eyes. "Emo-boy is fine. He's actually an alright teammate even though he doesn't seem to know how to say more then three words in a row. And Naruto is cool too. A little too hyper now that he so concentrated; I used to see him less one on one in the academy I guess. But I've been working on helping him calm down with some tricks from a friend of mine."

The whole group continued walking to the restaurant which Asuma was grateful for because he was starving. He wondered if the fourth brat was going to be joining them. It wouldn't be a problem but the first few weeks of a new team were important for forming bonds and he didn't want her to hang around if she was going to be fighting with Ino. That would disrupt the team balance because Shikamaru would probably take his sisters side.

"You would be Shikamaru's sister?" He interjected himself into the conversation, introducing himself. "I'm Sarutobi Asuma, their sensei." He brought Ino and Choji in for a slight hug because they were the closest to him. He grinned affably at her.

The girl grinned back at him. She was more lively then her brother, although he didn't know if it was possible for anyone in the world to be lazier then Shikamaru. She also seemed to jump from mood to mood like the wind changed direction; shed gone from lazy to joking to friendly to sincere in just the few moments since he'd met her.

She was back to friendly when she introduced herself. "I'm Kageko. Pleased to meet you. You're invited to dinner tomorrow evening, by the way. My mom has been wanting to meet you all together and Shikamaru probably wasn't going to tell you until tomorrow."

"I'll be there." Asuma promised. He'd been planning on having more dinners involving the teams family if possible. Team dinners were how he had bonded with his team and he knew that with an Akimichi it was going to be even more important. He also knew that Ino-Shika-Cho teams tended to be very tight units, both within themselves as well as within their clans. Getting invited to family dinners might help relax that formality. Or so he hoped.

Ino and Choji nodded in agreement to the invitation as well.

"We were already coming over cause it was a Friday." Ino pointed out. "We always come over on Fridays unless theres some other kind of clan or village event."

Kage shrugged. "Mom would want the invitation passed along nonetheless."

"Are you joining us for dinner tonight?" Shikamaru spoke up for once.

Kageko shook her head. "I'm supposed to meet up with Shisui this afternoon. I'll catch you later though Shika!"

Ino caught the slight girls arm before she could move away. Batting her eyelashes innocently, Ino frowned at her. "We didn't even have a chance to talk yet Kage! After all, you're teammates with Sasuke-kun now and as my future husband, I'm sure there is so much you can tell me. You have to get him to date me."

The other girl burst out laughing. "Ino, I love you, honestly. But I'm not going to help you get with the emo-brat. For one, he hates me. For two, I think he's pretty annoying. But for three, he's my teammate and he doesn't deserve to have his trust broken like that."

"But—" Ino interrupted and Kage cut her off, her voice suddenly serious.

"—Ino, No." Her voice was firm, her body no longer slouched and her face unsmiling. "Leave my teammates—both of them— alone. No stalking Sasuke; no being mean to Naruto. I'll tell the same thing to Sakura. You can go and bitch to her about how mean and unfair I'm being and get over your arguments with each other. But you wont mess up the dynamic of team 7 in the first weeks of its formation. Its crappy enough already." She rolled her eyes and ended back in a slouch as she finished speech.

Instead of looking intimidated, Ino looked annoyed and dejected. "…Fine." She said after a moments pause, as if giving a big concession.

Grinning Kageko pulled her into a quick hug and gave her a kiss on the cheek before doing the same to the two boys. She waved goodbye to Asuma, declaring, "I have to run, I'm already late. I'll see you all tomorrow for dinner!" as she doubled back the way they'd come, clearly having missed a street to turn on in favor of staying and walking with them.

Asuma was glad to have been given the lazier Nara. Shikamaru wasn't quite so moody; he didn't flip moods like his sister just had. And he was more predictable in his response. What kind of response was that? She acted like she was a character in a novel.

No, Asuma didn't quite like this other Nara. But that was fine. He just had to get through a dinner and fake his interest before he could go back to dealing with just his own team.

Ino grumbled as they walked on. "I just want an in with Sasuke-kun. Is that so hard to ask? I've known Kage for years. She's being super uncool about this."

Shikamaru ignored her. "Choji, I heard that new food stall was opening on the other side of the village. Whats up with that?"

Choji eagerly began filling them in on the news of the new hot spot and all talk of Sasuke was forgotten as even Ino stopped to listen in to the gossip.


	2. A Gambler's Fallacy

This takes place between chapter 11 and 12. Its a conversation between Sasuke and Kageko while they guard Tazuna on the bridge post-Zabuza fight.

~linebreak~

He slapped her hand away again, frowning at her. "No cheating." He reminded his teammate. She pulled her hand away from the deck with only one card in hand rather then two she'd been trying to sneak away with.

Waving him away carelessly, Kageko leaned back against the railing of the nearly completed bridge and fanned her face with her cards carelessly. "Ninja's cheat; I'm just practicing."

Sasuke frowned at the cards in his hand before choosing one and placing it on the pile between them, before reaching over the deck and grabbing a card from the deck. "How often were you cheating before I was using my Sharingan to watch you?"

"I played fair then." She looked at him guilelessly and he couldn't hold back his smirk.

"Liar." Kageko was a shameless cheat. She constantly encouraged Naruto to join her in her exploits as well, teaching him how to count cards. Thankfully, the other ninja was bad at it. Unfortunetly, Naruto was literally the luckiest ninja to have ever played cards.

She snickered at his face and then laid down a card, followed by 2 more in quick succession. He scowled at her play while she grinned in triumph.

"Beat an ace!" She raised a victory salute as he transitioned his scowl from her cards to his own hand, before snatching up the pile of cards they'd placed on the ground, vastly increasing the amount of cards in his hand.

They were playing a game that Sasuke had never heard of before Kage had showed him called Palace. It was a good game, easy to play, with set but simple rules that was quick to teach. Which meant that the bridge workers were free to join in on their lunch break, increasing the player to a maximum of 5 people. But it only needed 2 people to play, so Sasuke and Kage were free to go at it on days like today where it was just the two of them guarding the bridge.

It had been a week since the attack by Zabuza and things had dramatically calmed down since Gato's death. The whole village had a lighter mood. When he had escorted Tazuna's daughter to grab groceries earlier this week, there had been more food in the stalls, less despondence in the air.

There were also more people working on the bridge, perhaps no longer fearing retribution. Sasuke wasn't sure the reason exactly, he just knew that the extra labor was a boon to Tazuna.

Although things had calmed down, he had gotten used to keeping his Sharingan on near constantly when on the bridge with Kageko; she was an unapologetic cheater at any and all card games and once he'd noticed he'd found the easiest way to catch her was to have his Sharingan active and stop her in the act.

Kakashi sensei had simply thought it was funny, patting the both of them on the head and warning her to not get caught cheating if she ever went to a gambling hall. She'd just nodded seriously and admitted she'd need more practice till she could cheat somewhere like there and get away with it. Sensei had just patted her head again like she'd given a particularly clever answer.

Sasuke knew he was the only sane person on his team. Sure Naruto tried to fool him sometimes—he would take training seriously and when he stayed quiet it was easy to forget all the crazy things he did. But then Naruto would open his mouth and say something like "I could live off of ramen!" or "Sure Kage-chan, I'll do whatever you say!"

And that would remind Sasuke just how insane Naruto was.

No, Sasuke knew he was the only sane one on his team. Of course sensei was insane, for all that he was incredibly strong. One of the strongest in the village. If Kageko was to be believed- which he grudgingly acknowledged she probably should be- sensei was the best ninja in the village bar the Hokage.

Still, the man was late to everything, read porn in public, had the most unorthodox training methods ever. Nope, definitely not sane.

And then there was Kage. She was, as far as he was concerned in the beginning, tolerable. He hadn't wanted to be placed on a team. But she had managed a plan with the Dobe that got them all the bells. And she wasn't annoying like all the fan girls. He had never noticed her chasing him on they lunch breaks. She was lazy, but she could at least keep up during their lessons in the academy.

She made good points about training and missions when she chose to speak up.

But holy shit did she piss him off. She was more insane then Naruto. She had random quotes that she would say, by people that he had never heard of, which meant that she had just made them up and attributed them to random people. She skipped weeks worth of D rank missions. She argued with him for the sake of arguing. She took the Dobe's side on everything.

She had a sensei complex like Naruto had a ramen complex.

So that left the only sane member of the team as Sasuke.

"I wonder if Zabuza is still alive." Kage thought aloud as they played.  
Sasuke gave a slight grunt in acknowledgement. He was also curious, but there was no way to be sure. Besides, did people normally live with holes in their stomachs?

Seeing his face, Kage seemed to read his mind. She grinned wryly. "Typically I wouldn't even question it—that would looked pretty fatal. But Sensei's technique cauterized the wound on impact. You saw how little blood there was on the bridge? And I tried to heal as much as I could, which was next to nothing, but what I could do was stave off infection. That might be enough for him to live. Sensei completely missed vital organs. Probably not for lack of trying. Zabuza was most likely misranked. He probably could be classified a low S rank easily."

Sasuke hm'd again thoughtfully. "What about Haku?"

She shrugged. "If Zabuza lives then I guess he'll stay with him. If he dies, then who knows. He cant go back to mist. The bloodline purges were only a few years ago. Even if its no longer teh offical policy of the village, its still something that the older ninja supported. Haku would always be looked over his shoulder. BUt where else could he go? Mist will always be after him; his bloodline is seen as 'theirs'. Think of how Konoha would react if an Uchiha showed up in Sand? We wouldn't rest until they were dead. They'd be considered a traitor no matter the circumstances. So Haku really doesn't have many options of where to go."

"He can be a civilian." Even as Sasuke said it, he knew his words rang hollow. Sasuke didn't think he could ever give up the lifetime of work and dedication he'd spent creating the tool that was his body. Abandon it all for the safety of being a civilian.

Kage scoffed. "He may have looked a little bit wimpy but I cant imagine him giving up being a ninja. I could never. Being a ninja, protecting my village, my friends, my family. All of that is worth more then my safety to me."

Sasuke had never quite thought of it in terms like that. He knew he was planning on avenging his family, but he imagined that his parents would have felt much the same: protecting what was important to you was paramount. Protecting the village, his family…even his….teammates because they weren't quite friends. Those were things that he could do. And he could do them in the meantime while he got strong enough to avenge his clan. Because surely his family would have agreed that protecting what was important to you was as important as what was avenging what was important to you?

Trying to bring it up casually and shift the suddenly serious mood he had turned towards, Sasuke asked, "Has sensei mentioned your visit to a Yamanaka when you get back to the village?"

Not looking up from her contemplation of her hand of cards, Kage swore quietly to herself, before answering. "Fuck…No? Why would I be seeing a Yamanaka?"

Heart skipping a beat, Sasuke looked down at his own cards. He had too many right now and he needed to try and get rid of some of the 3's at the next opportunity.

"Uhhh." He'd never been very good at words and he'd thought all of them would be seeing a Yamanaka when they got back to the village. Sensei had slipped it so casually into conversation that Sasuke hadn't questioned it. 'Hey Sasuke, I just wanted to let you know to be free when we get back to the village. I'll bring you around for the visit to the Yamanaka so we can get that over with.' Why was it just him?

Looking up curiously at his nonanswer, Kage's sharp eyes met his. She had dark eyes, as dark as an Uchiha, and they held a sharp intelligence. Her face was blank and serious for a moment before she relaxed and shot him a brilliant grin.

"OH!" She let out an excited exclamation, before she scooted forward, cards ignored and lowered her voice. "Did you have your first kill?" she asked in a whisper.

Sasuke jerked back. "How did you know?" He hissed looking around them to see if anyone had noticed. None of the builders had stopped in their work or were paying the genin any attention.

She rolled her eyes like it was the most obvious thing. "You need to speak to a Yamanaka after a mission. You were separated from me and Naruto on this mission. After your first kill, the village requires you speak to someone in the village about it. It's not hard to put together. It's really not a big deal. In the academy they said its just a thing they do to make sure that you're not internalizing guilt or anything. Standard protocol. "

There was that keen intelligence. The vast leaps that let her put together information with only bits and pieces of information. Its was scary how she could do that. He hadn't even realized that was what the appointment was for, although Kakashi sensei had probably expected him to have put it together.

Sasuke even remembered the lesson now that Kage had reminded him. It wasn't meant to be a big deal, a simple check that everything was working out okay with the genin. Every genin was expected to make their first kill within a year of being promoted and therefore everyone would meet a Yamanaka within a year of graduating. It served two purposes Iruka had explained: One; It introduced students to the realities of the ninja profession and two; it introduced students to the professional help they would have available should they ever need help after traumatic event in a normal and familiar manner.

Sasuke relaxed now, knowing that the Yamanaka appointment was simply going to be a boring well visit where he was asked a list of baseline questions to assure his mental status before being released. No wonder Kakashi had seemed so bored when he'd mentioned it to Sasuke.

"I…Yea. Two men. Before I met everyone on the bridge." Sasuke announced gruffly. He clearly let her know the topic was closed for discussion. his worry was alleviated.

"How do you feel? What was it like? Are you alright?" She asked curiously, ignoring all the social cues he was trying to give off. He decided to indulge her curiosity. He was probably the first in their class to get a kill after all, considering team 7 was the first graduating genin team from their class to get a C rank that he knew of. In fact Sasuke was excited once again to know that he'd jumped ahead of his class mates. Getting your first kill was something to be celebrated. Quietly of course; no one would be so callous as to throw a party. But Sasuke remembered his older cousins being gifted with new weapon sets and being treated to desserts after their first few 'difficult' missions.

"It was…" He struggled to explain. A sudden wave of guilt slammed into him; he hadn't felt anything about the kills since they'd happened. He had quite literally almost forgotten about them. If it wasn't for Inari's near level of hero worship, Sasuke could have imagined it was a dream. Or a nightmare. Was this what a kill was? something that he barely thought about? Should he care more about something so momentous? He remembered he'd been pretty upset the day of. He'd had a mini existential crisis about his very existence. How easy it was to take a life. But talking with Kage had reminded him of the lessons in the academy. he tried to swallow back the weird mix of emotions that over came him.

He sat quietly for a moment trying to put his thoughts into words. His pride for serving his village. His happiness at gaining ground on his ultimate goal of avenging his clan. His wariness at the value of a human life. His unease with how easy it was to take a life. His disgust with how vile the men had been. His feelings of warmth for the mother and son after they had thanked him. All the feelings were melding together and his stomach was tight and he felt disquieted.

Kage leaned forward the small distance between them and gave a quick one armed hug, so brief that he didn't have time to react before she was scooting back and picking up her cards. Her aloof manner was back in place, her face already back in its normal sardonic grin. It was if the hug hadn't happened and his normal teammate was back.

"It's part of the job, ya know? You plan on killing your brother on day right?" He twitched at the reminder of that man. It had been years since he'd acknowledged him as family. He gave a sharp nod of affirmation.

Kage shrugged, eyes back on her cards. "Then you're going to have to get used to killing assholes. Not everyone is gonna be drop dead evil, but being sort of evil like Gato's thugs are people we;re gonna have to kill along with way too. You're ahead of Naruto and I, too. We're gonna need to be killing these kinds of fucks too. I'm kind of mad that I didn't do something more on this mission. Not that I want to just murder people. But…I'm gonna need to one day, wont I?"

Ignoring the gratuitous amount of swears she used in her everyday language, Sasuke nodded in agreement. "They were pretty bad anyway. Those two guys I killed. They were going to rape Tsunami. Kill her and Inari. I ended up getting them with a kunai and a simple genjutsu. Plus a simple baton on a soaked ninja wire lit the other guy up. Brutal end, but they were saying some pretty brutal stuff about Tsunami."

Kage's face went blank again for a moment before she smiled brightly at him and answered cheerfully. "They deserved death then."

Sasuke eyed her grin with a raised eyebrow. "You can be really scary when you smile. You should keep that down."

She let out a bark of a laugh but her smile didn't quite dim as she went back to her cards.

Sasuke hadn't wanted a team, and he certainly hadn't wanted a team of insane people. But Naruto and Kage were…team 7. And even Kakashi sensei fit in there somewhere. Sasuke had to admit he trusted his insane sensei. And as scary as Kage's smile could be, and as loud as Naruto could be, and as much of hard ass as their sensei could be, Sasuke couldn't imagine himself on a different team.

He turned back to the cards. He hoped he would be able to get her to pick up the pile with this ace; she would be furious and an angry Kage was hilarious. She would lose that smile as well which would settle the bridge workers down from the uneasy feeling in the air. It was times like this, where Sasuke had to worry about diffusing the killing intent in the air that Sasuke couldn't believe he had turned out to be the normal and well adjusted member of team 7. 


	3. Starcrossed

In the middle of chapter 18, when Kage and Shisui go out for dinner. This is so you can get a slice of life on what their friendship is like, as well as why its so weird to try and imagine just pairing them up right now. Shisui is way older then Kage. Something would have to be done to handle that. I have a plan in mind so that the whole he's a couple years older then her thing isnt quite so weird. But in the meantime, here's this because I couldn't get this scene out of my head.

Enjoy:

~linebreak~

"No I get it, I get it, it was a difficult mission. All I'm saying is, you're getting a little dramatic. You need to work on your reserves. You can't pass out at the end of every mission."

Shisui had finally calmed down from Kage's wild tale of Wave. "Still, I cant believe you didn't mention this before."

"No, no. Back up." With fire in her eyes and a dango stick being waggled in his direction, Shisui couldn't hold back a grin but he tried to force a serious look on his face. She rolled her eyes at his weak attempts and pressed on. "What do you mean I'm being dramatic?"

He burst out laughing. He let out between snorts of laughter: "Kage-chan, what do you think you're being right now?"

"Vengeful." She answered without hesitation, munching on her dango. She eyed the pocket that held his wallet threateningly.

"Definitely that…" He mumbled under his breath, while she stank eyed him before the two broke into grins, both happy to finally be done fighting. They'd easily fallen into their normal camaraderie and he was glad the normal jokes weren't straining anything. Kage too was relaxing into the normal joking routine and while teasing, she hadn't made any particular dent in his wallet. He would've paid for dinner if they'd gone out after a trip to the hospital anyway after all.

"I'm just saying," He continued, gesturing in the air with his spoon as he talked, before scooping another bite of shaved ice, "You faint, a lot. That'd bad form for a ninja. Its…." He paused for emphasis, leaning in, his eyes wide, "…dramatic."

She puffed up her cheeks indignant. "They've always been serious situations! The whole grass ninja thing was undeniable, come on! You've got to give me that!"

Mouth half full, Shisui swallowed the ice and winced at the brain freeze before answering. "That one is a pass. Passed out from the pain. Fine. The wave mission?" He'd been updated on the trip to dinner and had brought the conversation back around to the topic once dessert had been served even though they'd already finished talking about wave before they'd even been seated.

She kept her face placid and made steady eye contact with him, but Shisui knew her tells and had noticed her slight wince. She finally let out a huff of air. "I was tired. I had used a shit ton of chakra on that shadow construct against Zabuza. It's not all fun and games being a support ninja you know."

Shisui rolled his eyes. "That's a weak excuse and not a pass. Dra-ma-tic."

"You're dramatic!" She cried throwing her empty dango stick at him. He ducked and then grinned flashing a victory sign at her when the stick missed, but his smile changed to a look of false outrage when he looked back at her.

"Hey!" He cried out when he saw she had snatched up some a bite of his shaved ice when he'd ducked his head. She flashed her own victory sign at him. "I'm faster then Shisui. This is a momentous day indeed—" She sneaked another bite of his shaved ice, already finished with her dango.

"You're a brat." He said with a chuckle, leaning back in his chair. They were at an outdoor restaurant that served delightful deserts and Shisui was stuffed from both the food and the large iced treat. He pushed the bowl in Kage's direction, offering the rest to her, but she only took another scoop before abandoning it.

The restaurant's outdoor seating was nearly empty now, most people opting to sit inside with how dark it was outside, but Kage had never minded the darkness. Shisui had discovered Kage had near perfect night vision back when they were both still children and Shisui had taken advantage of it ever since.

Catching up inside the restaurant would have been to awkward. They couldn't have been loud and obnoxious like they were being now. This late in the evening, couples filled the restaurant, all of them looking for romance and peace and quiet. Here, outside the restaurant, there was no pressure for Shisui and Kage to be quiet unlike they would face indoors. Instead, out here, they could act like they always did.

Besides, even though he was a morning person, Shisui's favorite time of day was late evening, when the sun had set but the moon had yet to fully rise and the village was covered in shadows and darkness. The village gained a certain quiet softness about it, almost like someone had laid a blanket of quiet on it. It was why he loved winter more then summer; the snow helped muffle the noise and enhance the effect even more.

Coincidentally, it was also one of Kage's favorite time of day as well, although he knew she preferred the darkness of predawn . Although Shisui's eyes worked well in the darkness, he saw chakra and images with a sharp clarity. He knew that in the darkness, Kage saw with a depth and perceptiveness that the Sharingan couldn't maintain. One could argue that it wasn't as effective to see with such depth; that the sharingan was the superior eye because in a one on one fight, the sharingan picked up more information, even in a fight in the dark. But it meant that even in the dead of night, Shisui had could be on patrol, purposefully swing near the Nara compound and find the younger girl lying outside her home, cloud watching in a sky that looked black to him but that she swore was full of swirling masses of vapor and luminescent stars that were suns to her but pinpricks to him.

Kage could walk around in the darkness of a new moon and be as comfortable as if it was midday sunlight, which was something Shisui admitted that his eyes would only be able to do with the Sharingan active.

"How's your training been going?" Kage questioned. "Did you manage to improve that genjutsu you were working on with me?"

Shisui lost his playful smile for a moment, a scowl lighting his features, before he sighed and released the tension. "No, I've been struggling to get the exact reaction described in the scrolls. I need to keep experimenting to see how I can improve it, but its difficult because its not something that I can preform on teammates."

Kage nodded sympathetically. She'd been one of the only people he'd shows the scroll to; nicked off of a dead ninja from the newly formed village hidden in the sound, it was full of different genjutsu. Almost all of them were familiar to Shisui, having been raised in a clan that excelled in the art form. Only two had been unfamiliar. One had been easily learned- it affected the hunger of the victim, making them thing they needed eat now. It was especially effective on missions where he'd needed to poison a civilian by way of food. Waiting around for them to get hungry got boring very quickly.

The second one had been affected the balance of the victim, making them stumble and affecting their aim and overall ability. However, Shisui had discovered from the scroll that it was most likely permeant when preformed improperly, which he almost certainly was doing based on his results, so he could practice it on his comrades.

Shisui had needed to gain approval from the Hokage to keep the scroll after the end of the Anbu mission and the hokage had granted it, but had been clear that the scrolls origins must remain a secret. In actuality, the Hokage had said the scroll should remain a secret, but Shisui had needed to show Kage, and the direct orders hadn't said to not show her, so her had shown her, sworn her to secrecy, and not told her where it had come from.

"It's like this…" Shisui leaned in to the table, telling her the issues he was having with jutsu. Kage leaned in, just as intent on the conversation.

By the time they were ready to go, their friendship was mended, they were no where near done talking, and the shaved ice was a pool of water in a bowl. There conversation had danced all different topics and they were at a familiar one, which Shisui and her both passionately disagreed on.

The village was illuminated by lanterns and small lights as Shisui walked her back to the Nara compound. The alleyways were pooled in darkness, the sun having set long ago. The guard on duty nodded at both of them and the two of them gave a slight greeting back to him as well, but Shisui didn't stop his description of his ideal ninja team.

"But you're not including a medic! A well rounded medic is needed on a team to make it the _best_ possible team."

"No way." She disagreed. "It totally depends on the mission. There is no such thing as a perfect team for any one situation. BUT if you were forming a team to fight…say…Hanzo…more front line fighters might be a better thing then medics. I'm just saying!"

"No way!" He laughed. "It's crazy to say that Tsunade-sama wouldn't be helpful in that situation…" Shisui knew that Kage had a huge amount of respect for the female sanin and wouldn't want to be seen as disrespectful to someone like Tsunade.

"Well she's a totally different kind of medic though! No one else really compares—" She backpedaled quickly, trying to defend herself.

"But she's a medic!" Shisui crowed triumphantly. "You can't just say—"

The argument carried them to the door where Shisui was going to bade her goodnight, before Kage glanced over at the forest behind her house.

"Not the forest. You're still injured." Shisui said automatically reading her mind. She was looking at the same area he always caught her cloud watching, however it was late and dark and Shisui couldn't leave her alone like this while she was injured.

She shrugged. "Just come with me." She grabbed his hand and let him to the outskirts of the forest and he let her drag him along, plopping on the ground besides her. She stopped on the outskirts, not quite under the cover of the trees so as to not obscure the view of the sky. She propped her head back on her hands and crossed her feet at her ankle, looking up at the sky.

Shisui quietly laid himself down on the ground next to her. It had been a while since he'd star gazed with his friend, although she still called cloud watching because she alternated between the two activities. "You should rest. You have a mission in the morning." Shisui said his voice even.

Kage hummed, then shifted, sliding over and tucking into his side, like she always did during the day. Something felt more intimate about it at night but he couldn't say anything without seeming odd about their daytime activities and he didn't want to disrupt those. A small part of him pointed out that he _didn't want_ to say anything about these ones either but he quickly hushed it.

She pointed up at the sky at one of the star formations. "I think if I had to make a story for those stars…I would say they make the belt of a great warrior."

Shisui took a deep breath and then regretted it, ignoring the faint smell of lavender. "You're ignoring me now? I thought we were friends again?" He teased her.

She let her hand drop from pointing it at the sky but kept looking at the same constellation. "We are. Friends again that is. Always are." She turned to flash him a quick grin, her teeth shining in the darkness before she turned away. "I wasn't ignoring you." She mumbled the last, part, almost to herself. "I guess its stupid, but I just don't want the night to end."

She chuckled to herself and Shisui could feel the slight laugh against his side. He let out a slight laugh too. "What kind of warrior do you think it would be?" He asked instead of responding to her statement.

She brightened up and launched into one of her extraordinary tales full of details. She wove the rest of the stars into the story as well and Shisui idly thought that if she hadn't been a ninja, Kage could've been an author with all the stories she always had. He loved listening to her talk, although it was rare she was so verbose. He was one of the lucky ones that got to hear all her stories.

Even though Shisui didn't leave until well past midnight, much later then he'd planned on staying, he promised-at no prompting-to come by early the next morning. Kage had been worried all evening about falling behind on her training because of her hospitalization. She hadn't hinted that she'd been worried so much as she'd bemoaned her future failure and there was no way in hell Shisui was going to let his best friend fall behind when she'd gotten so far ahead of the pack already. This injury was basically a fluke anyway.

He would try and help her work through some of the stiffness and get her in the post-hospital routine he normally followed. Not that he ever went to hospitals. More the post-dangerous-anbu-mission routine he completed. Shisui was well acquainted with the recovery exercises Kage would be expected to do. Plus, she would probably want to start with her yoga and he had learned all the poses to that _years_ ago, even without the sharingan. It was a relaxing way to start his morning.

Kage grinned at him, giving him a solid hug good bye and he returned it, not quite as hard because he was cautious of her injuries. He noticed the lavender again.

"Your hair smells nice." He said dumbly.

She grinned back at him. "Lavender." she informed him. "It's relaxing. Plus it's natural enough to the forest that I don't immediately give myself away in a stealth mission. Or so sensei tells me."

"Plus it smells nice." She added at the end with a small laugh.

Shisui grinned back at her. "Plus it smells nice." he repeated. "That's whats really important to a ninja."

She rolled her eyes at him. "Okay Mr. Big shot ninja." She said sarcastically.

He adopted a mocked offended face. "I am sort of a big deal." he pointed out only half joking.

She rolled her eyes playfully. "You're such an ass. Goodnight Shisui! I'll see you tomorrow."

He smiled softly. "See you tomorrow." he disappeared using his moniker leaving Kage standing alone on her porch. She smiled faintly at the empty air.


End file.
